What I Expect

Breaking and Entering

With a city so compact, it's shocking how many miles we need to walk to make any progress towards a destination. Eventually though, the museum is in our sights after conquering multiple hills and windings streets, enough to make even me breathless. "What are you doing? Like, do you work?" I ask Bakura, just to break the tension. That just makes it more tense though, and I feel awkward asking such a formal question when she probably knows so much abut me from Akefia. I think she might have exaggerated how much he talked about me though, Akefia is a quiet person anyway on top of how private he is. Flaunting his relationship is the most un-Akefia thing I can imagine.

"Nothing right now, just kicking around," she shrugs nonchalantly. There's a lot of baggage in her voice though.

"I'm thirsty, can we stop here?" I point when we pass by a convenience store. They both allow it and I pop in and out quickly, just buying a bottle of Pepsi. I have a shirt and a hoodie on, so I put it in my hoodie pocket for the walk.

We reach the museum and Bakura takes us around to the back where a tall wire mesh fence is erected around the perimeter. A yellow 'No Trespassing warning sign makes me uneasy. I don't know if it's just because we'll be doing something wrong or what. "There's always a bit we can get through..." Bakura mutters, stalking the perimeter and scrutinising the fence for gaps.

"Won't cameras see us?" I whisper, the kind of whispering that's loud but doesn't carry sound far like a normal voice would.

"Nah, nobody checks those unless there's a reason," Bakura shrugs, having found the gap, low to the ground. She crawls through first, then Akefia and me. Bad day to wear a white shirt it seems, as when I stand there are blue streaks across it.

"What is this stuff?" I pick at the sticky paint-like substance.

"I don't know exactly, it's something they smear on the fence as a deterrent," Akefia explains with an amused snort. "As if the signs weren't enough to scare off wannabe trespassers,"

I pout, it's actually an effective deterrent. If I had known I was gonna get blue gunk all over me I wouldn't have bothered! Joke's on Akefia though, this is his shirt. My lilac one and my coat are still safely tucked away in my bedroom in the Mutou household.

The museum stands tall, I'm not sure I can even pinpoint the roof when I look up in the darkness. Floodlights illuminate only the lower floors. Bakura finds a staircase by the side, old railings with more of that blue gunk, I know to avoid it this time, only getting some on my hands. She places her hands on the railings, swinging between them with her feet outstretched. After a few swings she slams feet-first into the door, kicking it open. There's a second of fear when I imagine an alarm going off and a blaring red light searching the grounds but nothing happens.

"It's an old crappy door, I used to work here 'fore they fired me," Bakura explains. "I was the receptionist and we all used this door to sneak out for smoke breaks cause the lock sucks,"

"Why'd they fire you?" seems like a dumb thing to ask the person breaking and entering into a place, committing at least a couple felonies.

"Differences in vision," she holds her fingers up as quote marks. "Bullshit - was a week after I transitioned. The day after they sacked me I broke in and stole all the shit out the register," she shrugs.

"I have so much fuckin' respect for you," Akefia laughs. Does he like this sort of thing, the idea of us being criminals, or himself being a criminal? Does it excite him? We wander around for a while, it's amazing how much our footsteps echo in these empty chambers. We pass under a mammoth standing tall on a podium above us. In the dark it looks like an evil beast from Hell. "I'll admit, I never used to believe in revenge. But after seeing how the law and shit works, knowing how morality works - I'm not sure there can ever be justice without revenge,"